I’m Happy is a short film by (and starring) Michael Neithardt, who is also executive producer, new business at Psyop. It recently had its world premiere at Tropfest NY in Bryant Park.
Shot in Barcelona, Southern Spain, Southern France and Long Island, NY, the film is the story of a young man who has a heart attack, forcing him to come to terms with the regrets of his life. It explores the conversation in his mind during these his final moments. One part tone-poem, one part dream-scape, the man journeys through an exploration within his own mind and ultimately has to acknowledge the lies he has been telling himself all along.
“Too many people are just walking around, going through the motions of living but not actually doing so,” said Neithardt on the theme of the film. “They wind up in some dead end job, move somewhere they don’t even want to be and give up on all the things they love to do. The idea of becoming that person scares the shit out of me. So ‘What If?’ What if that person suddenly died prematurely? What would be the conversation in that person’s mind in their final moments? This is what I explore in ‘I’m Happy’. I want to inspire people to have this conversation with themselves before it is in fact too late.”
The film was a bit of a family project for Neithardt. Excluding the opening and closing shots, which Neithardt’s father Steve Neithardt drove the camera car for, the whole film was shot on location with just Neithardt’s wife, Vanessa, and their 22-month-old son, Beckett–whom Michael jokingly refers to as his “PA.”
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More